When word surfaced on Thursday that Donald Trump and Stephen Miller had twice pushed a plan to take those applying for asylum at the southern border and dump them in sanctuary cities, the White House rushed to deny that the idea had ever been put forward seriously. Not just Sarah Sanders, but Miller himself, spent the better part of a day waving their hands and claiming it never happened.
Then, as so often happens, Trump decided that a plan that had nothing going for it except the raw opportunity to hurt people in multiple ways sounded like a great idea.
On Friday, Trump reversed himself, tweeting that “we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities.” So all those things the White House said earlier about Trump not pushing a plan simply in the hopes that it will make people miserable for his pleasure were just lies heaped on lies—because of course he would.
That the plan would add millions in additional costs for transportation alone isn’t an issue. That it would remove those seeking asylum from access to the facilities meant to provide for their processing and entry isn’t an issue. That it would put tens of thousands of people on buses or planes in a massive logistical operation that no one has planned is not an issue. That it would leave those seeking asylum scattered across the county in a way that makes it massively more difficult for them to attend any immigration proceedings—which is exactly the problem Trump originally claimed to be trying to stop—is not an issue.
Trump thinks that it would be embarrassing to liberals who have supported immigrant rights. If it takes millions of dollars and a total disruption of the system to divide America, he’s absolutely willing to go there.
And Democrats should have just one answer to Trump’s cackling, hand-rubbing threat: Bring. It. On.
As the New York Times reports, Trump’s White House team is furiously backpedaling on its backpedaling to explain how the plan it said “was never seriously considered” is completely serious.
Democratic leadership from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, whose San Francisco district was to be a top target for busloads of refugees, to Senator Ed Markey (Mass.) whose state also contains several targeted cities, have been highly critical of the plan.
There’s no doubt that Trump’s intention for this plan is to cause people pain. He wants to cause trouble for Democratic politicians who have supported limited interaction between local authorities and ICE in order to protect communities, human rights, and basic decency. He wants to punish progressive communities by placing a strain on resources and facilities. The plan by Trump and Miller is expressly to bring masses of refugees to smaller sanctuary cities, then to sit back and watch as the sudden influx overwhelms the abilities of those communities to providing shelter and assistance necessary. And finally Trump wants to turn his lies about the number of those seeking asylum who appear for hearings into truth by removing them from the area of scheduled hearings and depriving them of resources necessary to make their case for remaining in the United States.
There is absolutely no doubt that Trump’s plan was made, and is being advanced, with malicious intent. It is being proposed not to advance the debate on immigration or how the United States should handle applicants for asylum, but entirely as an attempt to embarrass progressive politicians, punish accepting communities, and harm Democratic chances at the polls.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not also an opportunity to challenge Trump, take on his policy of spite, and turn it into a net good by bringing in people who would otherwise be retained in the next generation internment camps being built along the border.